National Influenza Vaccination Week
The National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is a national awareness week focused on highlighting the importance of influenza vaccination.
NIVW 2018 will be observed December 2-8.
For more information and for promotional materials, please click here.
Upcoming Events
Division of Disease Surveillance, Maine CDC Annual Infectious Disease Conference
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Augusta Civic Center
Learn more and register here.
 AFIX Quality Improvement Tip
CLEAN UP YOUR CLIENT POPULATION!
Does your organization’s client population in the Maine Immunization Information System (ImmPact) include people who are no longer your patients? Cleaning up your client population will help you accurately assess immunization rates and identify patients due or overdue for immunizations.
Use ImmPact’s patient search link feature to remove clients from your population who you no longer consider patients.
Do this on a routine basis so ImmPact’s assessment and other reports capture accurate information to support your organization’s immunization improvement activities.
If you need assistance please contact Clara Alvarez, AFIX Quality Improvement Coordinator at clara.alvarez@maine.gov
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NEW! Online Materials Order Form
Our materials order form is now electronic and located on the homepage of our website. To access it, please click here.
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Vaccine Updates
New Gardasil 9 Packaging
You may notice that your shipment of Gardasil 9 vaccine has a new NDC number and looks different than what you normally receive. Gardasil 9 is now available in two different presentations - prefilled syringe and vial.
You may continue to use the prefilled syringe under the same indications as you would the vial.
New Pentacel Packaging
1. Based upon customer feedback, the Pentacel vaccine box has been re-designed with separators between the vials to help reduce the vials from rubbing against each other and resulting in any potential for cracking during shipping. The box is slightly bigger to accommodate the separators (Dimensions: 3 3/8” wide, 2” high and 1 7/8” deep).
2. You will also notice two additional changes to the Pentacel vaccine packaging.
The label on the ActHIB (Haemophilus b Conjugate [Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate] Vaccine) vial is now vertical vs. horizontal. This does not impact the way lot numbers are recorded today.
3. The lot number on the Pentacel vaccine box will have an additional alpha character. This simply denotes where the vaccine has been packaged. The lot numbers on the vials themselves have not changed
Are You Using These Tools?
The Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (VEC CHOP) offers a number of Q&A sheets that address the most common questions about each topic in a short, approachable, and science-based manner.
Visit CHOP's website to access the Q&A sheets and other helpful resources:
vaccine.chop.edu/resources
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